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5th Annual Warrior Challenge All-Indian Bball Tourney Starts Tomorrow

ICTMN Staff

2/17/11

The 5th Annual Warrior Challenge is sponsored by the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians and Seven Clans Casinos, and is being held at two venues, the Red Lake Humanities Center and Red Lake High School in northern Minnesota. The tournament begins Friday February 18th 2011 at 6 PM at the Humanities Center, and continues Saturday beginning at 10 AM at both venues. Games are likely to be played up to 9 PM. On Sunday February 20th, the games start at 10 AM, with the championship game expected to begin at 5 PM.

“This year we changed the date for the games with hopes of getting more teams to come to Red Lake”, said organizer Ron Lussier in a press release. “I stopped taking registrations at 22 teams," he said, “ this is by far the most we’ve had yet. There are still about half a dozen teams waiting for a cancellation."

The 22 teams will play a total of 42 games. Six games will be played at the Humanities Center on Friday night, the tournament running on a process of double elimination—two losses and a team is out. Two twenty-minute periods will be played except for the loser bracket, which will play two fifteen minute halves.

“In the past tournaments, we had three or four teams that we knew would contend for the top prize. This year it’s anybody’s guess," Lussier said in the press release. “We have teams from North & South Dakota, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Kansas, Montana and Saskatchewan along with several teams from Minnesota who are very competitive as well.” Team Minnesota, which is made up of players from several Ojibwe reservation, are the defending champs. “This weekend will showcase some of the nation’s finest Native American basketball players," Lussier said. “We should wrap up on Sunday around 6pm with the awards ceremony to take place immediately following the championship game.”

The tourney includes monetary, trophy and clothing prizes for first, second, third and fourth place. The $350 entry fee that will be rewarded back in prizes.